The formula for vinegar is simple: You need an alcohol, you need oxygen, and you need the presence of bacteria

The formula for vinegar is simple: You need an alcohol, you need oxygen, and you need the presence of bacteria

By Leah Koenig

I have lived a regrettable amount of my life as an egg skeptic. Throughout childhood I refused to eat them, any style. Scrambled, fried, poached—whatever, I wasn't having them.

Eggs were such foreign territory, I had no idea that cooked yolks could be served either creamy and firm or molten and dripping, though I suspect knowledge of the latter would have concerned me. By high school I had softened to the idea of a cheese omelet.

Then college hit, along with a two year stint as a vegan. That meant 730 more eggless days, and an equal amount of time spent convincing myself that I wanted tofu scramble for breakfast. Part of my resistance, I'm sure, came from standard-issue picky eating, of which I had plenty. But I think there was also a fear of commitment because deep down, I surely knew I would eventually come around to eggs. And when I did, I would be a goner.

Over the past decade, I've made up for lost time. After college I survived on a steady diet of sunny side up eggs on toast—a simple and nutritious meal that has nurtured countless young, penny-pinching New Yorkers.

It would be years until I beat eggs to airy peaks for meringues and sponge cake, poached eggs in spicy tomato sauce for shakshuka (my current obsession), or strained my rotator cuff with the slow, endless whisking that comes with making homemade mayonnaise. But my love was already solidified like the dense orb of yolk snuggled inside a hardboiled egg.

These days, eggs are a constant presence in my kitchen. I splurge for a carton at the farmers' market whenever possible, and delight in the grassy flavor and extra-rich, stand-at-attention yolks. I also look for new ways to enjoy old favorites.

Most recently, I spoke with Janice Cole, author of Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading (Chronicle, 2011). Cole is an unabashed egg fiend—so much so that, for the last six years she has kept a small brood of laying hens in her backyard in Minnesota, and a stack of hatchery catalogues nearby. (Turns out there are 174 different breeds of chicks from which to choose.) Cole's book includes numerous ways to serve up eggs, including a recipe specifically developed for the delightful surprise of discovering two yolks inside a shell: double yolk sour lemon bars.

But the recipe that really caught my eye was one featured on her website for brown butter-basted eggs. They are cooked sunny side up by the unctuous heat of melted butter, which gets spooned over top until the edges grow crisp and crackly, and the yellow centers glisten. Finished with fresh lemon juice swirled in the pan and drizzled over both white and yolk, it's one of the most simple, but most delicious, ways to serve an egg.

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